Luthor Review

Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Lee Bermejo

After reading, and reviewing Batman: Broken City, I decided to buy more work from Brian Azzarello, including, Superman: For Tomorrow (which I also wanted for Jim Lee's art), which I've read, and reviewed since, Joker, which I've also read, and reviewed, and this.

Plot

Lex Luthor wants to save the world, and he feels that he must stop Superman to achieve that. With help from the likes of Mr. Orr Luthor lays his plans, and even creates a superhero of his own, named Hope.

Review

This was a fantastic book, and it showed a different side to Superman's arch enemy. Brian Azzarrello has produced a marvelous book, and it's something that was very original, and enjoyable. I've noticed through the stories that I have read from Azzarello over the last couple of weeks that no matter what character he's working on that he produces something unique, and something that the character doesn't do, or show as often otherwise. Azzarello also has a brilliant way with dialogue in his stories, as the character interaction is nothing short of brilliant. Now I will say that the story itself wasn't overall exciting, and the first half of it was a bit slow, but the emotion, throughout with the excitement near the end more than makes up for it. After reading Joker I was kind of expecting something similar in this book, but besides the fact that both stories are centered around arch enemies, and that they are both different take on the characters these books are very different.

The art in this book from Lee Bermejo is nothing short of phenomenal. Although I've seen his art on covers before I never really got the chance to appreciate it until I got the Before Watchmen: Rorschach series, and since then I've been trying to get comics, or graphic novels that have his interior artwork. I have also enjoyed his covers on such things like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but his covers don't compair to his interiors. Bermejo's artwork is full of amazing detail, and I can't find any panel that lacks detail. Bermejo is also able to show expressions brilliantly, as besides Azzarello's great dialogue, you can feel the emotion through the characters in Bermejo's art. I also love the way Bermejo draws the characters, as although he keeps them to their classic looks, he's added his own uniqueness. I especially liked how he drew Superman, as he looked like the demigod Luthor sees, but I did find it a bit weird that his eyes were always red. The cover from Bermejo was also fantastic, and I loved that he filled all that shadowy space with Superman. The colours from Dave Stewart were also brilliant, and they made the already phenomenal art of Bermejo look even better.

A Different Side to Luthor

As I said earlier this book gives a very different view of Luthor as a character. In this book Luthor appears to be this very nice, generous man, who sees Superman as a God looking over them, being nothing more than a threat. I liked this take on Luthor, as I've always seen Luthor as a character that wasn't born evil, but made evil through his jealousy towards Superman, and that is shown in this book (although it's more fear of Superman than jealousy this time). It was also nice to see that Luthor was still an obsessive character, wanting to get what he wants, and isn't willing to stop until he gets it. Overall I think that Azzarello wrote Luthor brilliantly, and it showed more depth to him as a character, whilst also showing him for what he truly is.

Luthor Speeks with Superman

Like Batman making an appearance in Joker, Superman made an appearance in this book. Although Superman had a much bigger appearance in this book than Batman had in Joker they were still very similar, as in it was obvious that they were background characters. Superman needs a longer appearance than Batman because in this story Superman is the focus of Luthor's problem, and the main reason he feels the need to create Hope, so it wouldn't be the same if he didn't appear as often. There was however something that I wasn't sure if I liked in Superman's appearance, and that was that he barely talked (I think he only said one thing in the entire book). I actually think this worked as a whole, as it lessened the attention towards Superman, and showed that he doesn't need words. I did however find it slightly awkward at times, but feel that it helped the story.

Like Azzarello's other Superman related story For Tomorrow, Mr. Orr also appears in this story. To be honest this is the character that has changed the least between this version of Superman's world, and the regular DC version. Mr. Orr is still a hired mercenary, but this time he's on Luthor's dime. Luthor uses him to help persuade people to do what he wants, and overall set-up things that will help Luthor in the long run. The function of Mr. Orr in this story doesn't just remind readers of what type of character Mr. Orr is, but it also shows some of the characteristics that we usually see from Luthor. It was also nice to see Mr. Orr again, as with him being created by Azzarello, it feels right for him to be in any Superman related story he works on, but only if his role is necessary, which it is in this book.

Luthor Meets Bruce Wayne

Batman also made an appearance in this book, as both Batman, ans Bruce Wayne. His main appearance in this book is during a dinner conversation between himself, and Luthor, but he also gets into a fight with Superman not long after. I liked Batman's appearance, but more as Bruce than Batman. I liked that we see how the rich live, and how due to being rich that Luthor, and Bruce are both friendly to one another, whether they like each other or not. I think that Azzarello showed Bruce's characteristics perfectly throughout the dinner, but not so well after his fight with Superman. I just couldn't see Bruce helping Luthor just cause he got in a fight with Superman, but there are reasons I can make for this. The main one is that Bruce also sees Superman as a threat, and shares the same goal as Luthor now, but it still doesn't feel right to me, as being a long time Batman fan I wouldn't expect him to do this. Don't get me wrong, I can believe him seeing Superman as a threat (he has in the past), but I can't see him helping Luthor. I do however understand that the story needs something like this to develop certain parts of it.

Luthor with Hope

Hope was the character that I saw most change from in this version of Superman's world than the regular DC version. I don't know a great deal about the normal version of Hope, but I do know enough to know that this version is much different. For starters the normal version is an Amazon that was hired as Luthor's bodyguard along with fellow Amazon Mercy Graves, whereas in this version she's a robot that Luthor made to be a superhero. I did however prefer this version, and found the relationship between her, and Luthor very interesting. You could say that it isn't right that someone can love as robot, or at least in the way Luthor does, but at the same time I can see why, as he created her, and was with her throughout. He also was that amazed by what she was, and due to her being exactly what he wanted it's kind of natural that he'd love her, even if it isn't necessarily right. I also liked that she believed in herself, and that although she was a robot, she still wanted to do good. It probably helped that she didn't know what she was, but all the same it was nice to see that although she believed in Luthor that she also wanted to do good.

Final Verdict

This was a brilliant book, but not quite as good as Azzarello, and Bermejo's other work. It was still a very interesting read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked how it showed a different side to Luthor, whilst showing some of the more well known characteristics. I would highly recommend this book, as it is still a cracking read.

Rating: 4/5

Joker Review

Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Lee Bermejo

I have been meaning to read this story for quite a while now, and after reading, and reviewing Batman: Broken City, I decided to buy more work from Brian Azzarello, including, Superman: For Tomorrow (which I also wanted for Jim Lee's art), which I've read, and reviewed since, this book, and Luthor. I'm also a huge Batman fan, and Joker is my favourite villain, so that was another reason.

Plot

Somehow Joker has been released from Arkham Asylum. When no one wants to pick him up an aspiring crook named Jonny Frost decides to pick him up, and becomes his right hand man.

Review

This was a brilliant book, and very enjoyable. To be honest although I'm a big fan of both Batman, and Joker I didn't know what to expect from this story. This is the case for most Joker stories, and that's one of the things I like about the character, his mysteriousness, although I'll talk more about Joker later on in my review. Brian Azzarello did a tremendous job in this book, and it was probably the most unique Joker story I have ever read. As I said in my intro I've been trying to read more of Azzarello's work, and that's mainly due to his brilliant Wonder Woman run that's out the now. This however isn't the first time I've read Azzerello's work on a Batman themed book, as like my intro also said I've read Batman Broken City. I wasn't the biggest fan of Broken City, but I did enjoy it, and I can see the odd similarity in this story. Azzarello has however taken all the things I liked in that story, scrapped the rest, and added more bizarreness, all of which I liked. Azzarello also did a very good job of writing the Joker, and although he hasn't done better than the other great writers that have wrote the character, he has done him justice, and showed his unpredictability.

Lee Bermejo's art was nothing short of phenomenal on this book, and it really helped set the tone of the story. I have to be honest I haven't seen much of Bermejo's art before, which I'm ashamed of as it's awesome, and some of the best art I have ever seen. I was actually introduced to Bermejo's art with the Before Watchmen: Rorschach series (which was also written by Azzarello), and I really liked it. I then started to see his art on covers like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and when I decided to get this book, and Luthor I was very happy to get the chance to see more of his amazing artwork. The detail in Bermejo's artwork is fantastic,as there is nothing that lacks detail. I also love how he deals with expressions, as some artists have beautiful artwork, but awkward expressions, whereas Bermejo's doesn't. What I especially liked about Bermejo's art was that although he made it very obvious who all the well known characters were, he added his own unique look to them, like having Riddler with question mark tattoo's, and Penguin with a small mohican like hairstyle. Also unlike Broken City I liked the realistic looking Killer Croc, as it fitted with the realistic story setting. I also loved the Bermejo's cover, and liked that it was nothing more than a smile, Joker's most distinguishing feature, making a simple, but bold statement. Patricia "Trish" Mulvihill's colours were also nice, and really helped to make Bermejo's art even better.

Jonny Frost

I was going to start by talking about what I thought about the Joker in this book, but I decided to start with Jonny Frost, who in my opinion is the main character. Although Joker is the title character, and main focus of the book, Jonny is the character who is telling the story, his story. This story is basically the telling of Jonny's life since meeting the Joker, and how it's changed his life. I personally liked that the story was getting told this way, as it felt like the film Goodfellas, with Jonny being similar to Ray Liotta's character Henry. I say that the two are similar as in Goodfellas Henry is aspiring to progress in the mobster lifestyle, whereas in this story Jonny is aspiring to become a known name, and sees Joker as his way to that. It's also similar as both stories are told with a monologue. Anyway I actually really liked Jonny as a character as although he felt like the normal crook, he had some personality, and a goal. I also loved that he knew how to act, as although he was scared of Joker he wouldn't admit it. I also think that having someone like Jonny telling the story makes sense, as it would be hard to write a story from Joker's point of view as it would need to be constant madness, which would be hard to write.

Joker, a Serious Mad Man

Now I'll talk about Joker. I really liked Joker in this story, and with his name on the cover I'd hope so. As I've said I'm a huge Joker fan, and he's been my favourite villain for as long as Batman's been my favourite hero (since the 90's Batman Animated Series). The impracticability of Joker is something that I really like, and it's the characteristic that sets him above any other villain. I also love that Joker doesn't really seem to care about what he's doing, as long as he can laugh whilst doing it, and that also makes him more unique. What was different about Joker than most times was that he seemed to actually be in a crime family, or something similar, with him in control of the other villains (or most of them anyway). As I said earlier I think that Azzarello has done an amazing job with Joker in this story, as he's kept enough of his characteristics to make long time fans of him enjoy this story, but changed enough to make them go, "oh, that was something different." I especially liked the relationship between Joker and Jonny as Joker is trying to make something out of him, whilst using him at the same time, and Jonny is looking to become a big name. It's always apparent that Joker's associates aren't his top priority (take Monty in this story for instance), so whilst reading this I was expecting something to happen between them, but I won't say whether there was or not, as to avoid spoilers.

When I said earlier that Joker was controlling most villains, the one he wasn't was Two-Face. Apparently whilst Joker was in Arkham Two-Face had taken over most if not all the Racket's in Gotham City, and Joker wasn't happy about this. I liked that there was conflict between Joker, and Two-Face, as a story where everyone kisses up to Joker wouldn't be fun, or enjoyable, and wouldn't seem right. It was nice to see the two get into a mini gang war, as it makes the story feel more realistic than most Batman related stories, something that this book has done all the way through. I don't really want to talk too much about the conflict as to avoid spoilers, but it was fabulous, and I loved that there were two characters that driven to be on top that they wouldn't back down.

Joker and Killer Croc Bully Penguin
(or Abner as he's called in this book)

I'll move on to talk about Penguin's appearance in this book. I wasn't actually going to mention his appearance any more that that he made an appearance, but there were a few things that made his appearance stand out more than say Riddler's. The main thing that stood out was that Joker called Penguin Abner, the only thing that Penguin is called throughout the story. I like to think of myself as a fairly knowledgeable Bat fan, and I can't recall Penguin ever getting called Abner before or after this (if anyone know why Joker's calling Penguin Abner please let me know by leaving a comment). To be honest the only way you can tell it's Penguin is due to his obvious features (beak like nose, and round stomach). I did however like Penguin's appearance in this story, as although we know Penguin for being a business man, we all know that deep down he's a coward, and this story shows that. I liked that Joker, and Croc shoved Penguin around, and got him doing whatever Joker wanted.

Now I'll finish off by talking about Batman's appearance. It was nice to see Batman as a background character, and that was one of the things I liked most in this story. With the title being Joker you want it to be centred around Joker as much as possible, and having Batman as a heavy feature wouldn't help that. I did however like that he made an appearance in this book, as at the same time it wouldn't be right if he didn't. There were two things I liked about Batman's appearance more than anything. The first was the way Bemerjo drew him, as it was simply fantastic, and the second was the way people talked about him, as whenever they were talking about him they wouldn't say his name, which I really liked.

Final Verdict

A very interesting, and entertaining book. Azzarello, and Bermejo have done a brilliant job of giving us something that's not only enjoyable, but unique. The story is dark, but also emotional, and above all else, a very good read. I would highly recommend this book as it's very enjoyable, and well worth the read.

Rating: 4.5/5